


In Which Everything Goes Wrong

by Schm0use



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, JYJ (Band), Super Junior
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-09 05:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4335623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schm0use/pseuds/Schm0use
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sprawling office complex that may be hiding more than it appears. Missing weapons shipments. A shady billionaire CEO. Separately, the elements don't add up; together, they make for one hell of a problem. There's trouble brewing in Japan... and it's up to DongBangJunior to stop it.</p><p>Spy/Secret Agent AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Yoshida Enterprises – Top Floor – Yoshida’s Office  
** Tokyo, Japan  
9:58 AM  
  
An older man sat behind a huge desk in a luxurious office. It was all expensive wooden paneling and glass and plush carpeting, and, taking up a corner of the wall, monitors that let the man see what was happening in his company, at all times. Behind him, through a window that spanned floor to ceiling and wall to wall, the skyline of Tokyo was visible in the distance. If there had been a view out the opposite wall, it would have been of the ocean stretching for miles; Yoshida Enterprises was the proud owner of its own little harbor, for importing and exporting its goods. Prime property indeed.  
  
The intercom on the desk beeped and the man pressed a button.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
_“Mr. Yoshida, sir, it’s Mr. Lee. Shall I send him in?”_  
  
“Ah, yes, yes. Thank you.”  
  
The doors to Mr. Yoshida’s office hissed and clicked—the slight noise barely betraying the amount of technology interwoven into the thick oak: pressure locks and coded micro computers and lots and lots of steel reinforcement.  
  
Mr. Yoshida was well protected indeed.  
  
But just then, the doors were opening, allowing a tall, thin young man into the room. He had a handsome, friendly, open face that made you want to trust him implicitly. Mr. Yoshida, however, was not a man who trusted  _anyone_  implicitly. He stood and came around from behind the desk and gave Mr. Lee a short perfunctory bow.  
  
Mr. Lee, on the other hand, bowed deeply, causing Mr. Yoshida to begrudgingly admit that the man—no,  _boy_ —was respectful, at the very least.  
  
“Mr. Lee. I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance… and I hope this meeting will benefit us both.”  
  
What Mr. Yoshida meant was: You’re lucky to even be standing in my presence, and if you have anything I want, I will take it, and you will be grateful to be able to use my name as an associate in any subsequent business dealings.  
  
His tone said it all.  
  
Mr. Lee smiled a brilliant (and somewhat vapid, Mr. Yoshida thought) smile and agreed wholeheartedly.  
  
This would be very easy, decided Mr. Yoshida, as he led Mr. Lee to a cushioned chair opposite his desk. So easy, it  _almost_  wouldn’t be any fun.  
  
Oddly enough, “Mr. Lee” was thinking exactly the same thing.

 

**A side street across from Yoshida Enterprises**

**10:00 AM**  
  
“Hey. Check it out. Siwon’s in.” Yoochun said, typing away at a couple keys.  
  
“That easy?” Kibum backed his roller chair over to the myriad of monitors lining the side of the cleaned out black Cadillac Escalade he was in. An Escalade, because nobody fell for that unmarked-beige-van shit anymore. They’d have Yoshida’s men swarming over them before they could say “we’re just tourists”. Plus, they simply had more style than that.  
  
“Mm-hmm.” Yoochun hit a couple more keys and the view on the screen to his left rotated clockwise around the room, from an angle that looked as though the camera feeding it was somewhere in the ceiling of Yoshida’s office.  
  
_Clackclackclack._  
  
More typing and the view on his right, which looked like it was practically Siwon’s bird’s eye view (probably a camera attached to a button on his coat) panned up so it was looking straight at Yoshida’s face.  
  
“Would you look at the expression on that bastard’s face?” The third person in the Escalade said.  
  
“What’d’ya mean, Changmin?” Yoochun said absently, fiddling with the camera views.  
  
Changmin, who had previously been staring out the windshield of the car at Yoshida Enterprises, frowned at the screen still showing Yoshida’s face. “He looks so self-assured… like he’s just gonna feed Siwon to his pet poodle for breakfast.”  
  
“That’s because he thinks he is. Metaphorically.” Kibum said. He had rolled back across the car to check in with a different set of monitors, and what looked like a lot of high-tech radio equipment.  
  
The whole set up was Yoochun’s doing. In their team, he was The Techie… it was well known amongst all his friends that if there was technology involved, anywhere, he could make it work, and probably better than it had before he got to it.  
  
Kibum’s eyes glanced from one monitor to the next to the next, so fast it was hard to believe he was seeing anything—but in fact, he was seeing  _everything_. He was The Analyst of the team—nothing got past him. Nothing.  
  
Siwon was The Front Man—his looks, his genuine mannerisms, his smile… he could talk to anyone, and he was ridiculously good at getting information from people easily and painlessly. And he was always polite to a fault—even while pointing a gun at your head.  
  
Changmin sighed… at that particular moment in time, he really didn’t have much to do but wait.  
  
“Why couldn’t I go with them this time? I’m so  _bored_.”  
  
“Just wait.” Yoochun told him. “If things go to hell, you’ll see plenty of action.”  
  
“Yeah, I guess.” Changmin said, comforted.  
  
“Hey, we’re hoping that  _doesn’t_  happen, remember?” Kibum pointed out.  
  
“Uh huh. But it probably will.”  
  
“Speaking of which,” Yoochun cut in, “Everybody is in position on the  _off chance_ ”—he glanced meaningfully at Changmin—“that it does, right?”  
  
“Uh… I’ll find out.” Kibum responded, and swung around to face the radio equipment.  
  
“Try Su first.” Changmin said. “It’ll be hardest for him to answer.”  
  
“Right.”

 

**Yoshida Enterprises – Conference Room – Two floors below Yoshida’s Offic**

**10:02 AM**  
  
There was a crackling, fizzing noise in Junsu’s earpiece, which suddenly burst into life.  _“Junsu? Junsu, can you hear me? Can you talk?”_  
  
Junsu, who was currently in a very long, very boring board meeting with several top executives in Yoshida’s company, was jerked suddenly from a dazed stupor. He had been resting his cheek on his palm, and his elbow slipped off the table, sending his face plummeting into the glass tabletop. The resulting bang caused by his chin making impact with the glass brought the entire meeting to a halt as the executives all turned to stare at him.  
  
“Uh… s-sorry. I need… to use the bathroom.” He got up awkwardly and stumbled out. Once outside, he headed straight for the first roomy storage closet he found. Shoved in amongst the mops and brooms, he pressed a finger to his ear.  
  
“Kibum?”  
  
_“Sorry, was that a bad time?”_  
  
“Uh… no. Not at all. I was in a board meeting… I think I was supposed to be taking notes but…”  
  
_“It’s alright, Su, it’s not your fault you have the attention span of a five-year old.”_  
  
“Hey! Did you forget I'm the one that got us the info about the shipment?”  
  
_“That remains to be seen.”_  Kibum said. But Junsu knew that  _he_  knew that Junsu had it right, because Junsu was good at what he did. Junsu was always The Inside Man, because, even though they all made fun of him for it, nobody  _ever_  suspected the cute one. And Junsu was cuter than a couple of chubby babies playing with a newborn kitten.  _“We just wanted to make sure you were in position. Siwon’s in, and I’m about to check with the others.”_  
  
“Got it. I’ll be up in about 2 minutes.”  
  
“What about that board meeting?” Kibum asked, and Junsu could  _hear_  the grin in his voice.  
  
“I doubt they’ll miss me.” He was about to hang up, but then said, “Hey. You think we’ll be back at the hotel by 1? There’s a soccer match on today that I  _can’t_  miss.”  
  
_“Don’t count on it.”_  Kibum said, and hung up.  
  
Junsu sighed dejectedly, then pushed his way out of the supply closet, straightening his clothes. He walked back the way he came, past the conference room where the board meeting was being held and took an elevator down a couple floors, emerging into less plush surroundings, now clearly on one of the floors where the subordinates worked, in cubicles instead of behind nice desks. He arrived at his own, pulled a briefcase out from under the desk, then left.  
  
Moments later, he was opening the door to a small, darkened meeting room. Junsu made sure to lock the door behind him, flicking on the lights as he did so. He put the briefcase down on the floor and knelt beside it, taking out his cell phone. He dialed a number and the briefcase clicked—unlocked.  
  
Junsu opened the briefcase, which contained nothing in the way of office documents or supplies—instead, he took out a silver handgun, cocking it to make sure he heard the satisfying  _ka-chick_  that meant it was loaded.  
  
“Alright.” He loosened his tie, kicked the briefcase away. “Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely everyone's going to be showing up in this eventually, which makes this a rather character-heavy fic. It _is_ fun though, I promise. 
> 
> This is actually an old piece of writing - seven years old, in fact. I haven't written fic in ages, but I wanted to upload all my older works to AO3 to consolidate everything. It may take awhile, but hopefully I can get all my SJ fics moved over!


	2. Chapter 2

**Yoshida Enterprises – Somewhere in the basement**  
**10:05 AM**  
  
Ryeowook scurried very quickly through the basement floors of Yoshida Enterprises. There were a surprising amount of workers down here, and running into any of them would have been very awkward and potentially life-threatening. Fortunately for Ryeowook, none of them were even aware he was there. Ryeowook was The Infiltrator. Although he could rival Junsu for cute, he was a good four inches shorter than him, and smaller than anyone else in the group. He fit into small spaces. Like air vents.  
  
It was a crappy job, but somebody had to do it.  
  
These air vents were particularly roomy, however, and Ryeowook’s scurrying speed had reached new levels. He had just talked to Kibum, and assured him that he’d be in position in a matter of minutes—it was his job to follow the shipment.  
  
The reason for them all being there: the shipment of firearms Yoshida was delivering to… someone.  _That_  was information they still needed to find out (which explained Siwon’s role in the whole deal), but no matter who it was, the fact remained that Yoshida’s company was supposed to be dealing in computer hardware— _not_  weaponry. They needed to stop the deal before the weapons fell into possible dangerous hands.  
  
They knew what time the trade was taking place… they just didn’t know exactly where. Yoochun and Kibum were banking on them lifting it out from the roof, but Ryeowook had to stick with the shipment and its handlers, and constantly update the team on its whereabouts, just in case they switched up the locations. After winding through the dark air ducts for several more minutes, he arrived at an air vent that led to a room that looked as dark as the duct he was in. He checked the map Yoochun had made, compiled from Junsu’s measurements of the building and Yoochun’s own technology.  
  
“I really hope you guys are right.” Ryeowook said softly, because if he’d just spent half an hour working his way through cobwebby, dusty air ducts for nothing, he was going to have to kill  _somebody_.  
  
He removed the grate in front of the vent so silently that he might as well have been opening a well oiled door. He paused to listen for noise.   
  
Nothing.  
  
It sounded as if the room was empty, so Ryeowook continued forward, careful to make no noise. He could barely see anything. He touched a finger to his earpiece.  
  
“Kibum.”   
  
_“What’s up?”_  The reply came back instantly.  
  
“I’m in the room. But it’s dark, I can’t see anything. Do you think Yoochun could—”   
  
The lights suddenly blazed to life.  
  
“Thanks.” Ryeowook said, looking around him. “Oh, wait… hang on…” He was standing, not in a room, but in a corridor. There was a door at the end.  
  
_“Uh…”_  Kibum’s voice said slowly.  _“Yoochun says… he didn’t touch anything.”_  
  
Ryeowook froze.  _Crap._    
  
There was noise from behind him. He spun. There was another door at the other end of the corridor. And someone was opening it. So Ryeowook went in the opposite direction.  
  
He bolted towards the other door—only to find it, unsurprisingly, locked. There was a key pad on the wall next to it.   
  
“Kibum, I’m in a corridor outside the room, and I’ve got guys coming from a door behind me. I need Yoochun to pick the lock!”  
  
_“He says he’s on it.”_  
  
“Okay, because I’ve probably got about 3 seconds—”  
  
The door clicked. Ryeowook shoved it and it swung open. He dove through and was in the process of shutting it as he saw the door at the other end of the corridor begin to push inwards. He slammed his door shut. Turned.  
  
His mouth fell open.  
  
The room he was in now was well-lit. It was big, standard warehouse size. It had to be the room he was looking for. All this, he had expected. What he hadn’t expected, however, what  _none_  of them had expected…  
  
He realized that the men coming through would arrive on his side in a moments, and he’d have nowhere else to run, so he bolted towards the back of the warehouse, where a set of sketchy looking steps led up to a catwalk. He climbed them quickly, and not a moment to soon—the door clicked open again and the men entered the room. There were a  _lot_  of them.  
  
“Bingo.” Ryeowook whispered.   
  
_“Ryeowook! Are you okay? What’s going on?”_  Kibum hissed in his ear.  
  
“I’m fine. I’m in the room, I’m hidden, and I’m pretty sure the handlers just got here.”  
  
_“Great. I’ll patch you through to the others—”_  
  
“Uh, wait… not so great, actually.”  
  
_“What? Why?”_  Kibum demanded.  
  
“Um… what did you guys say was going to be the size of the load?”  
  
_“Couple crates, no big deal, but it's a first time hand off… our main priority is to figure out who he’s dealing to, remember?”_  
  
“Yup. Kibum, it’s more than a couple crates.”  
  
A pause on the other end.  
  
_“…How much more?”_

Ryeowook looked around at the massive underground warehouse, shelves towering nearly to the ceiling with metal storage boxes.  
  
“A lot more. I would say we’re looking at a couple _hundred_ crates, at the very least. With handlers to match.”  
  
***  
  
“You’re joking.” Kibum replied, staring at his radio set in shock, while Changmin said, “Told you,” behind him.  
  
_“Nope.”_  Ryeowook’s voice said. Yoochun was staring at the radio set too. Changmin just looked smug. Yoochun came over to Kibum’s chair so he could talk with Ryeowook himself.  
  
“Can you give us a video feed?” He asked.  
  
_“One second…”_  There was the sound of fumbling while Ryeowook searched for something.   
  
_“You’ve got a connection to my phone, right Yoochun?”_  
  
“Of course. Send it through.”   
  
A dark monitor flashed to life. The three men in the car hurried over to it.   
  
“Oh,  _damn_ …” Yoochun breathed.  
  
“How did we not catch that?!” Kibum asked furiously.  
  
“You mean, how did _Junsu_ not catch that...” Changmin said, sighing.  
  
“Yoshida’s better than we thought.” Yoochun admitted. “A lot better.”  
  
“But not good enough.” Kibum said, angry that this had slipped past him. “Ryeowook, we’ll get back to you.  _Stay with them;_ I’m going to tell the others. This isn’t ideal, but we can handle it, easy.” 

 

 **Outside Yoshida Enterprises – West End**  
**10:10 AM**  
  
“A problem?” Heechul heard Leeteuk ask, and he looked up to see the leader pacing back and forth, phone pressed to his ear. “What kind of problem?” Leeteuk’s brow furrowed. “A really big one. Elaborate, please?”  
  
Heechul grinned to himself absentmindedly, and fiddled with the straps on the backpack he wore. For someone so down to earth, Kibum enjoyed being a smartass too much for his own good at times.   
  
Leeteuk’s sub-team was waiting in the hot sun, in a far removed part of the Yoshida Enterprises lot, where no one would happen to stumble across them on accident.  
  
“What do you think happened?” A soft voice asked, and Heechul looked up to see Hankyung, looking at Leeteuk just like he was—but Hankyung looked a whole lot more concerned than Heechul did. Hankyung was the whole reason they were even overseas; he was the Foreign Affairs Handler; if something was happening— _anywhere_ —he already knew about it.   
  
Heechul shrugged. “Dunno. Probably got the size of the shipment wrong. Means we’ll need to take care of more handlers.” He paused. “I hope.”  
  
“You hope?” The newest and youngest member of the group, Kyuhyun, asked.   
  
“Yeah…I mean, it’s no fun otherwise.”  
  
Kyuhyun stared. Hankyung smiled faintly (Kyuhyun wasn’t quite used to Heechul yet, but who ever was, really), and said, “He’s just trying to sound cool.”   
  
Heechul looked up disdainfully and waved his gun in Hankyung’s direction. “Hey. Fuck you.”   
  
“Yeah, we’ll be in position.” Leeteuk said, and the other three looked over at him in anticipation. “Sounds good. Talk to you soon.” He hung up. “Bad news.” He said to the others resignedly. “We underestimated the size of the shipment. We’re gonna be up against a lot more guys.”  
  
Heechul started laughing. Kyuhyun tried to cover a grin, unsuccessfully. Hankyung just said, “Never mind” in response to Leeteuk’s confused expression.  
  
“Alright… Wookie’s staying with them regardless…” Leeteuk trailed off and looked extremely worried for a moment. Heechul rolled his eyes at their leader, who was, by all accounts, The Mother Hen. The team was his family. You didn’t mess with them, because he  _would_  find whoever did. And shortly thereafter, that person would be dead.  
  
“Leeteuk, he’ll be fine. It’s not like he’s never done this before.”   
  
“Yeah…” Leeteuk said. “He’s gonna keep us updated. We go where he says, moving inward from the west end of the compound. We think they’re most likely going to air lift it out, especially now that there’s that much weight, so we’ll try to work our way up to the roof… we’ll figure out how to take them out on the way.”   
  
“Sounds like a plan.” Heechul said, jumping up. “Let’s suit up, shall we?” He sloughed off the backpack he was wearing—Hankyung did the same.   
  
Leeteuk and Kyuhyun crouched by Hankyung. They armed themselves in their own styles, Leeteuk with a pair of semi-automatic revolvers, Kyuhyun with a single pistol, Hankyung took two handguns… and then they all turned to stare at Heechul, who was still going through his own backpack. He had pulled out so far: two handguns, which he had shoved into holsters; a pistol, which went into the back of his pants, concealed under his shirt; and a rifle, which was slung over his back. As he began pulling out a submachine gun, Leeteuk cleared his throat.  
  
“Heechul? Will you be able to  _move_  with all of those?”   
  
Heechul looked at him blankly. “You said there’s going to be a lot of guys, right?”  
  
The other three considered. Looked back and forth between Heechul, his guns, and each other.  
  
“…What else do you have in there?” Kyuhyun finally asked, causing Heechul to burst into laughter and throw him the backpack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Shit starts to get cray._
> 
> *** signifies a brief jump in time/action  
> — signifies concurrent actions/dialogue over radio; no time lapse has occured

**Yoshida Enterprises – Underground HVAC Plant**  
**10:13 AM**  
  
Much closer to the action, or where it was soon to be, was the second sub-team. They were, in fact,  _under_  the compound, in the company’s underground HVAC plant. HVAC: Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. It was a labyrinth of generators, pumps, pipes, boilers, huge fans and steam. Easy to get lost. But the team was moving through the maze like they’d grown up there.  
  
“It’s hot.”   
  
“We know, Shindong.”  
  
“It’s  _really_  hot.”   
  
“You said that already.”  
  
“No, Sungmin, I added a really. Because,  _it’s really, really freakin’ hot_.”  
  
“Well, maybe if you followed the training diet like the rest of us…”  
  
“It’s because of this backpack.”  
  
“I’m carrying one too!”  
  
Yunho tuned out Shindong and Sungmin’s bantering—they were always like this right before they pulled off a job, to fight the tension. He focused instead on the new variables—Kibum had just radioed in the trouble with the shipment.   
  
“What are you thinking?” The fourth member of his team, Jaejoong, asked, quickening his pace to catch up with Yunho as they jogged through the HVAC.  
  
“That this whole shipment miscalculation could be a good or a bad thing. Obviously, bad, because there are only eighteen of us and a lot more of them. But also because we can’t just confiscate the shipment ourselves anymore—there’s no way we’ll be able to transport all that.”  
  
Jaejoong whistled. “Hadn’t thought of that. We’re gonna have to take care of it some other way.”  
  
“So, how is it a good thing?” Sungmin called from behind them.   
  
_“They_  won’t be able to get it out quickly either. At least, a lot less quickly then we’d originally figured. We’ll definitely be able to make it to the drop off point before they’re gone.”  
  
Jaejoong patted Yunho on the back. “Always a silver lining, huh?”  
  
“Leave it to the baby to figure it out.” Shindong said, and Yunho allowed himself a grin. It was true, he was one of the younger members in the group, certainly the youngest of the team he was leading right now; but Yunho was The Born Leader. He was young, but when everything went to hell, he’d get them out every time.  
  
In one of the rooms, they headed for a small alcove that housed a ladder leading up to a vent.  
  
“This is the one.” Yunho said, and they charged up and through the vent to the outside. Shindong let loose what could only be described as a muffled scream of happiness. The others inhaled deeply. They had been down there for ages, until they got word to move out from Kibum.  
  
“I love air.” Shindong said cheerfully.  
  
They were now standing in some sort of dark gravelly back alleyway at what they knew to be the east end of Yoshida Enterprises, on the complete opposite side of the compound from Leeteuk’s team. 

“Come on.” Yunho's team moved quickly down the alley until they arrived at an unmarked door on the side of a building. Unlike most of the other doors in the compound, this one was locked with just a regular padlock. Like they’d figured, it was rare that a door leading to this area would be high in security.   
  
“Should we dump the packs here?” Sungmin asked.  
  
“Probably our best bet.” Yunho said.  
  
Yunho, Jaejoong and Shindong armed themselves—heavily. Sungmin did not. He hung back to keep watch.  
  
“We good?” Jaejoong asked. The others did a last minute inventory and nodded. Jaejoong flung the packs into a nearby dumpster.   
  
Shindong spun the shotgun he was holding in his hands and smashed the butt into the padlock. It gave, and he pushed the door open to reveal the back flight of steps that they would take through the building up to the roof.  
  
“Ready?” Yunho asked, peering into the stairwell.   
  
“When are we not?” Jaejoong replied. From behind him came the sound of Shindong’s shotgun being cocked. Yunho smiled.   
  
“Let’s go.”

 

 **Yoshida Enterprises – 7th floor – Mid wing corridor**  
**10:14 AM**  
  
Two men—one with dark brown hair, the other light—strode down a corridor located at the very heart of Yoshida Enterprises. They were dressed in matching dark suits, dark glasses tucked into the front pocket of their white dress shirts, both with briefcases. They made no attempts to hide themselves. And so no one questioned their presence.   
  
Their strides matched each other exactly in length and timing—though it looked so natural, they probably didn’t even know they were doing it.   
  
The dark-haired man’s phone rang.  
  
As one, they both stopped walking. The dark-haired man turned to lean his back against the wall, facing the way they had come. The light-haired man turned to face the way they were going. They covered each other perfectly. Automatically.   
  
“Hello?”  
  
_“Donghae.”_  Kibum said.  _“I’ve got some news you’re gonna love.”_  
  
Donghae grinned. “From your tone of voice, I’ll bet.”  
  
_“Eunhyuk with you?”_  
  
The light-haired man looked over his shoulder at Donghae.   
  
“What do you think?”  
  
_“Just checking. Look, we got the shipment size wrong. It’s exponentially bigger then we figured it would be. I know you two can handle yourselves, but you might want to meet up with one of the other teams—Yoshida has a small army handling the crates.”_  
  
“Got it. We’ll try to find them on the way up. We’re almost in the center now, so we’ll start moving from there.”  
  
_“Okay. Expect word from Ryeowook soon. They should be moving any minute. Good luck.”_  
  
Kibum disconnected. Donghae clicked his phone closed. Then he and Eunhyuk turned and continued down the corridor.  
  
The corridor actually connected the three wings of Yoshida Enterprises together—it was suspended outside and between them, the walls made of glass. If the two men looked to their right, they could see the ocean.  
  
“What’d Kibum say?” Eunhyuk asked.  
  
“The shipment’s bigger than we thought. He said we should probably meet up with Leeteuk or Yunho because we’ll be up against more people. I said we’d try.”  
  
“Oh, really?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“We’re not going to try, are we?”  
  
“Nah.” Donghae shook his head. “We’ll just meet up with them at the loading site. I figure we can take whoever we come across along the way.”  
  
They turned right in the middle of the corridor, heading for the central north wing of the company. Heading towards the ocean.  
  
Strides still matching, they both pulled their sunglasses out, flicked them once to put them on as they reached the sliding glass doors to the north wing reception lobby. In perfect unison. 

 

 **Yoshida Enterprises – Basement Warehouse**  
**10:16 AM**  
  
Ryeowook had been lying on his stomach, waiting in silence for about ten minutes when the handlers first showed signs of movement. He picked his head up and whispered into his mouthpiece.  
  
“Kibum. Connect me to the others. They’re moving.”  
  
There was a moment of silence from the other end and then Kibum said,  _“You’re patched.”_ The sound of other hushed voices filtered in over the earpiece.  
  
_“Get ready, guys.”_  Kibum said, and the noise quieted.  
  
Ryeowook watched as one of the handlers began yelling out instructions—heavy duty gurneys were wheeled over, forklifts were driven out, and the crates were lifted.   
  
“Here we go…” He muttered.   
  
It took a lot of men to a gurney, but they slowly moved them towards the huge transport elevators at the other end of the warehouse.  
  
“Nice.” He said. “They’re moving them to the elevator. Looks like it’s gonna be the roof after all.”

—

Yunho motioned to his team, who had previously been crouched in the stairwell, waiting. 

“That makes this job easy.” He said.  
  
They went up.

—

The handlers had the gurneys all lined up in front of the elevator. The man directing them was fiddling with a key pad on the wall. He punched some numbers and stepped back.  
  
“They’re taking them up.” Ryeowook said triumphantly. No sooner were the words out of his mouth… when a door _past_ the elevators slid open, leading to a long, wide hallway. “…Neeevermind, no they are not.”

—

“What?” Leeteuk hissed into his mic, stopping short. His team stopped as well. They were inside the compound now, in a deserted back hallway.   
  
“What do you mean, “Nevermind, they’re  _not_?” Heechul demanded.

—

“They passed the elevators… and they’re going into some corridor that looks like it just goes straight.” Ryeowook said, as he crawled on his stomach across the catwalk, back to the ladder. He waited for the last handlers to enter the corridor, then slid down the ladder without using the rungs. “I’m following.” There was a vent in the wall running parallel to the corridor. He yanked it open and dove in.

—

Yoochun was practically attacking the keyboard in front of him. He pulled up a map of the building.   
  
“They could still be heading for the roof—this could just be a more concealed route for them.”

—

“Alright, we’re sticking with the plan then?” Donghae asked. He and Eunhyuk were hustling down a hallway a floor above the mid wing corridor. They burst through a locked door into a small empty office and shoved a desk below an air vent.  
  
“We’re going into the vents.” Eunhyuk said, as he gave Donghae a leg up.   
  
“Maybe we’ll be seeing you, Ryeowook.” Donghae said as he grabbed the edge of the vent with his fingers and pulled himself in. Eunhyuk tossed the suitcases up into the vent. Donghae pushed them aside, then turned and lowered a hand to Eunhyuk, who grabbed it. Eunhyuk jumped, Donghae pulled, hard, and Eunhyuk was yanked up, using his free hand to grab the edge of the vent and haul himself in.   
  
They opened the suitcases, arming themselves with two handguns each, and then set off down the vent.  
  
***  
  
Ryeowook moved as fast as he possibly could through the ducts, catching glimpses of the handlers through the wall vents every now and then. He huffed exasperatedly.  
  
_“What’s up?”_  Yoochun’s voice asked in his ear.  
  
“I can barely see them. I’m afraid I’m going to lose them like this.”  
  
_“Hang on a second.”_  Yoochun said, and Ryeowook could imagine him typing away at his computer.  _“Okay, there’s an air duct that runs directly above the corridor they’re in right now. You should be able to see more of them from there. Can you get up?”_  
  
Ryeowook struggled to pick up the pace even further… he had to get ahead of the handlers.  _Come on… there has to be one somewhere_ —ah _!_    
  
He’d run into a place in the duct where the low ceiling suddenly opened up to reveal a chimney-like chute. It was about four feet by four feet, and had no handholds of any kind but… if Ryeowook pressed his back as firmly as he could against one side… and his feet against the other… he could scoot up the wall until he got where he wanted to be. Once he got to the opening in the air duct, he just had to push back into it.  
  
“Yoochun.” He whispered. “I can get up.”  
  
***  
  
As Ryeowook began to climb the chute, Junsu was racing along another corridor, fully intending to follow Donghae and Eunhyuk into the air vents. There were just way too many potential opportunities for him to run into somebody otherwise. He’d already startled a couple of poor people on their coffee break, and nearly broken his neck when he’d ignored a “wet floor” sign in his mad dash to get to the roof.  
  
He busted open an empty office door and ran inside… only to find that it wasn’t, in fact, empty.   
  
There were several men sitting inside and Junsu found himself, for the second time that day, on the end of several “what-the-hell-are-you-doing” stares. Except these stares were menacing, dead serious. Even in their drab business suits, these men didn't look like typical office workers. Junsu laughed awkwardly.  
  
“Uh… sorry… was looking for the… bathroom.” He turned to exit, and found the door shut and a burly man blocking his way. Junsu took a couple steps back in retreat, and then, lightning fast, whipped out his gun and pointed it at the man’s head. The man didn’t flinch. And Junsu heard several answering metallic clicks from behind him. He froze, and then chanced a quick glance over his shoulder.  
  
Yep. They  _all_  had guns.  
  
Junsu smiled weakly at the man in front of him, slowly placed his gun on the floor, and raised both hands over his head.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** signifies a brief jump in time/action  
> — signifies concurrent actions/dialogue over radio; no time lapse has occured

Ryeowook had reached the air shaft above the corridor and was relieved to see that he’d kept up with the handlers, who were right below him.   
  
“You were right Yoochun. I can see them fine from here.”  
  
Another good thing about ducts in the ceiling was that they were a lot roomier than wall ducts. Ryeowook could stand, if he was bent over significantly, rather than crawl. It made for much faster movement. He began tracking them again. Every now and then, they would make a turn and he would lose them, and he’d have to use the shaft in a roundabout way until he found them again. Fortunately, there were smaller side vents that provided a view of rooms and hallways to his side, so he could orient himself.  
  
“It looks like they’re heading towards the center of the building… why, I don’t know.”  
  
 _“Possibly the only way to get through unnoticed.”_  Came Kibum’s voice.  _“It’s not like they could just build a walkway going straight there… they’d be seen.”_    
  
“If you say so.” Ryeowook replied. He had just lost, then stumbled across them again. This time, he said, “Ha!”   
  
 _“What?”_  Asked several voices at once.  
  
“ _Now_  they’re going in an elevator. Well, two. Two big ones.”  
  
Indeed, the handlers were now splitting up into two groups so as to fit in the two elevators. Once the doors had closed on them, Ryeowook (who had forsaken subtlety entirely) kicked out a vent and dropped down to the floor beneath it, just in time to see the elevators stop on the fifth floor. He was still in the basement. There was a stairwell behind a door to his left, and he lost no time in yanking open the door and hurtling up the stairs.  
  
“They stopped on the fifth floor. More evasiveness I guess. I’m heading up to the sixth to get above them again.”   
  
He cleared the stairs in record time and burst onto the sixth floor—it was the same layout as the basement floor and he had no problems finding the corresponding vent and tearing into it. There was another shaft that would drop him down to the fifth floor ceiling vent. He reversed what he had done before, scooting  _down_  the shaft and propelling himself backward into the fifth floor vent.  
  
“Where are you…” He turned a corner and heard the grinding of wheels that meant he was getting close. Right before he could make that final turn that he was sure would bring him directly above the handlers again, he saw something that stopped him as effectively as a slap to the face.  
  
 _“Junsu?!”_  
  
***  
  
After an unpleasant frisking, Junsu had been forced into a chair, hands duck taped behind his back, and was now facing five angry, gun-wielding men who obviously wanted to know who he was and why he was there.   
  
Junsu thought it was fairly obvious why he was there. There was no apparent reason for someone to be sneaking around the building other than to stop the impending weapons deal from happening, except maybe for someone trying to steal the company’s computer hardware secrets.   
  
Junsu highly doubted Apple or Microsoft would have sent in an armed operative just for the sake of a few computer chips.  
  
But since they’d asked…  
  
“I… I work for Apple… I was just supposed to be bringing back a hard drive or two, nothing major, I swear—!”  
  
“Shut up.” One of the men said. Then he aimed his gun at Junsu’s foot, kneeling down to pat Junsu's face menacingly. “We don’t want to scratch that pretty face, so we’ll start from the bottom up unless you tell us what you’re  _really_  doing here.”   
  
Junsu gulped.   
  
—  
  
Ryeowook watched Junsu’s attempt to lie—poorly—to the men, wondering desperately what to do. There was no way he could  _leave_  Junsu, but if he tried anything, he’d just end up losing the handlers.   
  
 _“‘Junsu’ what?!”_  Yoochun and Changmin both yelled frantically.   
  
 _“What happened to Junsu?”_  Eunhyuk’s asked. He sounded noticeably worried, even over the radio.  
  
“He got caught, I don’t know how, I’m right above the room he’s in!” Ryeowook whispered. “What do I—oh  _crap_ , hang on!” He said as the man put his gun to Junsu’s shoe. Ryeowook did the only thing he could think of. He just  _sat_  in the vent and slammed his feet as hard as he could onto the floor beneath him.   
  
—  
  
A loud  _BANG_  coming from the direction of the ceiling snapped everybody’s attention away from Junsu. The other four men whipped their guns up in different directions, and the man interrogating him turned to stare around as well. Junsu saw his opening, and took it.  
  
He swiped his foot sideways, knocking the gun out of the man’s hand, then brought his other foot around and kicked the man in the side of the head, dropping him on the spot.   
  
—  
  
Ryeowook began to crawl away, hoping he’d done enough. He reached one of the vents that let him look through the bottom of the duct to watch for another split second, just to make sure Junsu would be okay.  
  
—  
  
Junsu seized the gun between his feet, kicked it up with the inside of his left foot, and then  _smashed_  it forward with his right driving it straight at the gun hand of a man about to shoot at him.   
  
 _Ha_ , he thought,  _and Kibum said watching all that soccer was a waste of time._  
  
The man’s shot went wild, pinging off an air vent in the ceiling—  
  
—  
  
—which happened to be the same air vent Ryeowook was right on top of.   
  
The bullet hit, cracked the frame of the vent, and  _the whole freaking vent dropped into the room_ , bringing Ryeowook with it.  
  
—  
  
There was a huge crash as the vent fell into the room, and a geyser of paper shot up as Ryeowook hit the desk and rolled off it to hide behind it.  
  
Junsu, who was facing the opposite direction, only  _heard_  all the commotion, and then became extremely confused when a voice called out, “Junsu!”  
  
“What the— _Ryeowook_?!” He was distracted for a moment as another guy took aim at him, only to be struck by a heavy metal paperweight (thrown by Ryeowook) in the face. He went down. Three to go.  
  
One guy didn’t even join the fight—as soon as he saw Ryeowook fall into the room, he just bolted for the door.  
  
“Stop him!” Junsu yelled over his shoulder, but the man was gone. So now, two to go.  
  
Ryeowook vaulted over the desk, grabbing a letter opener lying on it as he did so, and sliced through the duct tape around Junsu’s wrists. Junsu yanked his hands apart and seized a stray gun from the floor. He started to take aim, but was forced to raise his arms to block instead as one of the men he had relieved of a gun took a swing at his head. Junsu brought his knee up into the man’s stomach and then elbowed him in the back of the neck once he doubled over. One to go.  
  
Ryeowook didn’t even bother with a gun. He charged forward with his letter opener, taking the man in front of him completely by surprise. As the man hurried to aim, Ryeowook slashed at his face once, twice, three times causing the man to stumble backwards to avoid the sharp point of the opener. He ended up tripping over the body of the first guy Junsu had put out of commission, and slammed his head on the edge of the desk, knocking himself out.  
  
Ryeowook breathed out a sigh of relief, tossing his letter opener. Junsu bent to reclaim his silver handgun and one that belonged one of the bad guys, which he tossed to Ryeowook. Ryeowook took it, then climbed back on the desk as Junsu went to peer out the door.  
  
“Hey, Junsu, mind helping me back up there?” He asked, turning to see Junsu backpedal away from the door.  
  
“Nope. No, I think it’s time we ditched the plan.”  
  
“What? Why?”   
  
“Because…” Junsu said as he grabbed Ryeowook’s arm and they barreled out the door. “They know we’re here.”   
  
Ryeowook turned to see a whole  _lot_  of armed men coming around the corner in the hallway and decided that yes, it was time to ditch the plan.  
  
***  
  
The three occupants of the Escalade were, to put it mildly, freaking out.  
  
“Ryeowook?! Ryeowook,  _what’s going on_?!” Kibum hollered.  
  
Yoochun was yelling for Junsu on the other side of the car and Changmin was trying to field questions from everyone else.  
  
 _“Kibum, stop yelling! I’m—we’re fine! Junsu and I are together, and we’re fine.”_  
  
“You’re both in the vents?” Kibum asked.   
  
 _“No. We sort of gave up on that.”_    
  
—  
  
“RYEOWOOK!” Yunho yelled in exasperation. The past five minutes had consisted of him and his team running back and forth in the stairwell, completely disoriented by the craziness issuing forth from the people who were  _supposed_  to be informing them of what to do. Jaejoong looked ready to shoot the first person he saw, friend, foe, or innocent bystander, and Shindong was fast approaching the same level of frustration. Sungmin was calmer than the other two, albeit worried about how fast the situation was deteriorating.  
  
 _“They know we’re here!”_  Junsu’s voice cut in.  _“And they saw Wook fall out of the vents, so they know we were using those. They’ll definitely be monitoring them.”_  
  
—  
  
Donghae and Eunhyuk, still in the air shafts, looked at each other, then backtracked to the nearest vent, kicked it out and dropped through it to the floor.  
  
 _“By the way, we’re being followed. By a lot of guys. So any back up would be greatly appreciated.”_  
  
“Where are you?” Eunhyuk asked.   
  
 _“Fifth floor, east wing.”_  
  
“What a coincidence.” Eunhyuk said, as he and Donghae took off down the hallway. “So are we.”  
  
—  
  
Leeteuk winced as Kibum’s voice swearing explosively assaulted his ears.   
  
 _“How the hell are we supposed to track them if we can’t use the vents?!”_    
  
“We’ll figure something out.” Leeteuk said, as Heechul, acting as point guard, signaled that the coast was clear. Leeteuk let Hankyung and Kyuhyun move forward as he himself covered the rear—they were in active danger now and were acting accordingly.   
  
“Keep heading up. Also, someone  _might_  want to warn Siwon about what’s going on. Tell him to get out.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** signifies a brief jump in time/action  
> — signifies concurrent actions/dialogue over radio; no time lapse has occured

At the exact same moment Ryeowook was plummeting from the ceiling into Junsu’s interrogation room, Siwon had been laughing engagingly at something Yoshida had just said, when the desk intercom buzzed.   
  
 _“Mr. Yoshida, sir, we have a situation.”_  
  
Yoshida snapped to attention. “What kind of situation?”  
  
 _“Check channel 3, sir.”_  
  
Yoshida swiveled his chair around to point a remote at one of the monitors in the wall. The screen flickered to the scene with Ryeowook and Junsu, systematically finishing off Yoshida’s men. Yoshida’s eyes went wide.   
  
“That’s unfortunate…” Said the voice of “Mr. Lee” from behind him. Yoshida spun to find a gun pointed at his head (and a slightly apologetic smile on the face of the young man pointing it at him). “Unfortunate for your team, I mean. Mine is doing pretty well.” Siwon furrowed his brow. “Although, _that_ definitely wasn’t part of the plan…”  
  
Yoshida’s eyes flickered to the intercom on his desk, and Siwon waved his gun in warning.   
  
“I really  _don’t_  want to shoot you.” Siwon said, and truly looked like he meant what he said. He spun his chair around so he was sitting in it backwards, dangling his arms off the backrest. “So. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to get this information out of you at gunpoint but…” He laughed, and gestured to his gun. “Right. Who are you selling to?”  
  
Yoshida stared at him, steely-eyed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  
  
Siwon leaned forward earnestly. “Mr. Yoshida. We know about the weapons load. Just tell me who you’re shipping it to, and you could save yourself a lot of trouble.  _Plus_ , if it falls into the wrong hands, a lot of people could get hurt. Don’t let that happen.”  
  
 _“Siwon.”_  Kibum’s voice said suddenly. Siwon blinked—he hadn’t been in contact with anyone since he’d stepped into the office.  _“The cargo load is way bigger than we thought it’d be, so there’s more security. And they know we’re here.”_    
  
“Huh. Already figured out the second part, but didn’t know about the first. What are we doing now?”   
  
 _“They want you to get out of Yoshida’s office. Maybe meet up with them, or you could head back to the car if the coast is clear.”_  
  
“I think I’ll try to find the others. Thanks for the update.”  
  
 _“No problem. Good luck.”_  
  
The intercom on the desk crackled to life.  _“Mr. Yoshida? Do you have any orders for us?”_  
  
Siwon glanced at the door to the office. “Still not going to say anything?”  
  
Yoshida continued glaring at Siwon.  
  
Siwon cocked his head to the side. “I’ve got to hand it to you… you’re pretty calm.”  
  
“I’ve never been beaten.” Yoshida spat.   
  
 _“Mr. Yoshida?”_  The voice said, and it sounded suspicious and more than a little worried.  
  
“Well, you know what they say…” Siwon said, grinning. “…you always remember your first time.”   
  
 _“Mr. Yoshida, we’re coming in!”_  
  
The doors hissed. Siwon turned to face the huge glass window and, raising his gun, prayed that no one had seen the need to bulletproof a window that was so high off the ground.  
  
He ran towards it, firing shot after shot, and the window, although resistant, splintered, then cracked under the gunfire, and then  _shattered_  as he threw himself headfirst out the seventieth story of Yoshida enterprises.  
  
—  
  
Changmin, who had gone back to staring out the windshield at the building, rather than listen to the other two in the car trying to figure out what was going on  _in_  the building, suddenly let out a yell of shock and almost fell out of his seat.  
  
“What?!” Yoochun and Kibum chorused.  
  
“Siwon just… he just FLEW out of the WINDOW on the top floor!”  
  
The other two traded glances.  
  
“Siwon’s out.” Kibum told the others.  
  
—  
  
Siwon was barely out of the window before he twisted his body over in midair and pulled out an entirely different type of gun then the one he’d just used from his belt. It was fitted with what looked like a piston. Siwon fired it and it sprung open—a grappling hook—and shot over the top of the building, catching on the edge and holding fast.   
  
“Huh. Gotta tell Yoochun this works.” Siwon said, and began to scale the building to the rooftop. He moved so fast he could almost have been walking upright as opposed to vertically, and pulled himself over onto the roof just as the first bullets from Yoshida’s men began to impact the wall around him.   
  
The roof held a single, solitary helicopter. There were two armed guards, and the pilot. Siwon swung his gun up, and the guards looked slightly taken aback.  
  
“Put your guns down!” Siwon ordered. They seemed to consider for a second, then decided their odds were better—both raised their guns to fire.  
  
 _BLAM! BLAM!_    
  
Siwon dropped a guard with each shot.  
  
He raced up to the helicopter—the pilot looked terrified. He was unarmed.  
  
“How many others are coming?” Siwon demanded.   
  
“Wh-what? What others?”  
  
“For the weapons! It’s too big a shipment for one helicopter!”   
  
“I have  _n-n-no_  idea what you’re talking about, I swear, I just f-f-fly Yoshida where h-h-he needs to go!” The man was cowering in his seat. Siwon lowered his gun slowly.   
  
“You mean, you have no idea about any… uh… heavy loads being taken out of here today?”  
  
“No! Yoshida just told me to wait here for him today. There’s not even room in here for me to take anything except a few passengers!”  
  
Siwon lowered his gun all the way. “Yoochun.”  
  
 _“I’m here.”_  
  
“Patch me through to everyone, please.”  
  
 _“Okay… done.”_  
  
“Guys. They’re not taking it out from the roof.”  
  
—  
  
Yunho, who by this time was  _almost_  to the rooftop, simply froze in place. “Please. Please tell me you are joking.”  
  
 _“Sorry, Yunho. But I’m_ on  _the roof, and trust me, there is nothing going down up here.”_  
  
Jaejoong groaned.  
  
 _“I just talked to Yoshida’s pilot. Yoshida had him on standby in case he needed an out, and there’s no way he would have an escape route in the same place he’s sending the shipment out.”_  
  
—  
  
“Son. Of. A.  _Bitch_.” Heechul said, and then just  _sat_  in the middle of the hallway. Leeteuk pinched the bridge of his nose.   
  
“If they’re not lifting it out from the roof, then our best bet is to be on the ground. We’re heading back down guys.”  
  
 _“You do that.”_  Siwon said.  _“I’m going to figure out where they’re passing it off, once and for all.”_  
  
***  
  
As Siwon was informing them of yet  _another_  problem they could add to their list, Junsu and Ryeowook were faced with a much more immediately pressing issue—such as how to survive the four to one odds they were currently up against.   
  
“Look at it this way,” Junsu said as they ran. “If two to one was easy, four to one shouldn’t be too bad.” They hallway intersected with another one, and right before they passed the intersection, four  _more_  men appeared to join the others.  
  
“What about six to one odds?” Ryeowook asked.  
  
“That might be tough.” Junsu admitted, then: “We surrender!”

He threw his hands in the air. Ryeowook followed, slowly raising his hands above his head.  
  
One of the men stepped forward. It was the one who had run from the earlier fight—and now he'd brought reinforcements. “Not this time you don’t.”  
  
He raised his gun, squeezed his finger on the trigger—and out of  _nowhere_ , took a bullet to the forehead. He fell backwards. The men to his left and right followed suit in a spray of blood. Junsu and Ryeowook spun in time to see two blurs that were Donghae and Eunhyuk dive into the fight.   
  
Junsu and Ryeowook immediately started firing at their stunned enemies. It took about five seconds to finish them all.   
  
“Took you long enough.” Junsu said disdainfully to Eunhyuk.   
  
“Hey, it’s a tough job, saving your ass all the time.” Eunhyuk said, and Junsu glared. Eunhyuk threw in a long-suffering sigh for added effect, then got serious. “Let’s head for the outside—” Eunhyuk began before there was a commotion behind them and more of Yoshida’s men trickled into the hallway.  
  
“Go, GO!” Eunhyuk yelled, pushing Junsu and Ryeowook. “Just get to the others! We’ll handle this.”   
  
“Hyuk—” Junsu started, clearly unwilling to leave.  
  
“I’ll be fine.” Eunhyuk grinned. “Besides, Su, you’ll just get in my way.”  
  
Junsu looked torn between flipping him off and insisting on staying, but Ryeowook pulled on his arm, and with one quick last glance, he and Ryeowook disappeared down one corridor just as more men appeared down the other.   
  
“Let’s make this fast.” Donghae said.  
  
In one swift movement, he swung around, pulling his guns up and firing hard into the guys on his side. Eunhyuk mirrored his movements, so they were back to back and firing in each direction. They covered the hallway in bullets, forcing Yoshida’s men back into the corridors they had appeared from, where they had to risk poking their heads out to shoot.  
  
Eunhyuk’s guns went dry first and Donghae heard the empty cartridges click.   
  
“Down!” Donghae yelled, and Eunhyuk just ducked to reload in the middle of everything while Donghae aimed in two directions, and then he was up and covering Donghae within a few seconds when  _he_  had to reload. The bad guys couldn’t even get a shot off.   
  
“Which way?” Donghae yelled.  
  
“Left!” Eunhyuk called back, and without warning, just yelled, “GO!” and they charged towards one of the corridors Yoshida’s men were taking refuge in.  
  
Eunhyuk led, with an elbow to the face of the first man he ran into, and Donghae darted ahead of him, landing a spinning kick in the stomach of the next. They each raised their guns and fired once, Eunhyuk taking out a man on the right, Donghae another on the left, and then both fired a final time, dropping the last guy together. Then they hauled ass down the corridor.  
  
They were The Partners In Crime. They never needed backup—they had each other. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things took a slight turn for the silly in this chapter...
> 
> *** signifies a brief jump in time/action  
> — signifies concurrent actions/dialogue over radio; no time lapse has occured

“Come on.” Yunho said, teeth gritted. This had been the mission from hell, and he was just ready for it to be over. “We’re heading back to the ground.”   
  
Having almost reached the roof, he and the rest of his team were standing in a long empty hallway. He turned back to the stairwell they’d been in. Reached for the door handle.  
  
“If we just take this all the way back down, we should be fi—”  
  
The door swung open just before he could open it. A single man stood in it, arm still outstretched from pushing it open. He and Yunho stared at each other.  
  
“Uh.” Yunho said.   
  
“You—” The man started.  
  
“Awkward.” Shindong concluded.   
  
“ _They’re in the stairwells_!” The man yelled into his radio, before Yunho lunged forward, knocking it out of his hand. He disarmed the man and forced him to the ground.  
  
“There goes  _that_  plan.” Sungmin said.   
  
“How much do you know about the shipment!” Yunho yelled at the man. Siwon clearly was going to be getting no more information out of Yoshida, so trying to find out anything he could was worth a shot.   
  
“I don’t know anything.”  
  
“Bullshit.” Jaejoong said, stepping forward. He glanced at Yunho, who nodded at him, once. Jaejoong knelt down next to the man. “Why would you be the only person sent up here if you knew nothing?”  
  
Jaejoong was usually such a  _nice_  guy—unless he wanted something. He was the Interrogator.   
  
“There were other people with me—they went off to chase your friends.” The man insisted.  
  
“Don’t believe you.” Jaejoong said, and then grabbed the man’s arm, twisting it backwards. He pulled back very slowly. “This,” he exerted a little more pressure, “is going to hurt a  _lot_ —unless you just tell me what you know.”   
  
“I don’t know anything!” The man repeated, frantic now.   
  
Jaejoong dragged his arm back a little further.  
  
“I don’t even know what to tell you!” The guy said desperately.   
  
“Who’s Yoshida dealing to?” Yunho asked, seeing his opening.   
  
“I’m not sure!”  
  
“Jaejoong?” Yunho prompted.   
  
“Ah, alright, alright!” The man shouted. “Look, only Yoshida knows for sure. But I’ve heard some names tossed around—and the one that keeps getting repeated is… The Knights of the Apocalypse.”  
  
“The Knights of the Apocalypse?!” Jaejoong asked sharply. Behind him, Yunho gasped.  
  
“Yes!”  
  
There was a stunned pause. Then,  
  
“Wait, who is that?” Jaejoong asked, turning to look at the others.   
  
“I feel like I’ve heard of them before…” Yunho trailed off. “Maybe? …No.”  
  
“What. Is going. On.” Shindong, who didn’t speak any Japanese, asked Sungmin blankly.  
  
“He says they’re dealing with… The Knights of the Apocalypse…?” Sungmin said, confused.  
  
“Oh.” Shindong nodded. “Well, that just sounds clichéd.”  
  
The man’s radio suddenly buzzed to life. “ _Tanaka, we’re coming up. What’s your position?_ ”  
  
“Damn!” Yunho said, as Jaejoong squeezed a pressure point on the man’s neck, causing him to pass out. “Let’s move!”   
  
They took off down the corridor. Yunho keyed his radio.  
  
“Hey, Yoochun?”  
  
—  
  
“What’s up?” Yoochun asked.  
  
“ _Does the name The Knights of the Apocalypse mean anything to you?_ ”  
  
“…Nooo…” Yoochun said slowly. “I can… google it?”  
  
“ _Please_.” Yunho said. “ _Let me know what you find out_.”  
  
“Will do.” Yoochun told him, already at work. “Be with you in a second.”  
  
Yoochun’s backdoor search engines were considerably more effective than Google, and in seconds, he was scrolling through an all encompassing list of all things Knights (and Nights) of the Apocalypse related. The problem was…  
  
“They’re all… bad romance novels and B movies.” Changmin observed.  
  
“Yes, thank you, Changmin, I realized.” Yoochun said. “Yunho? Are you sure this guy wasn’t making things up?”  
  
“ _No._ ”   
  
“Oh.” Yoochun said, exasperation poorly hidden. “Well, in  _that_  case.”  
  
“Wait, Yoochun.” Kibum said, coming over to Yoochun’s side of the van. “Are you searching Japanese databases only?”  
  
“For the most part. Yes.”  
  
“Try Korean.”  
  
Yoochun raised an eyebrow, but modified the search. Several new articles came up. And one of them…  
  
“Yunho!” Yoochun exclaimed. “Got something. It looks like… I think he may have been talking about a small, radical terrorist group. They’re based in Korea.” He eyed Kibum critically. “How did you know that?”  
  
“What  _don’t_  I know?” Kibum smiled, and Yoochun and Changmin both rolled their eyes.  
  
” _They’re based in_  Korea,  _and we haven’t even heard of them_?” Jaejoong’s voice asked.  
  
“Yeah. They’re not… very well known. They’re just… willing to pay a lot for these weapons.”  
  
“ _How much?_ ” Yunho wanted to know.  
  
“A ridiculous amount much.”  
  
“ _How do you even_ know _this?_ ”  
  
“Uh… it’s advertised on their website.” Yoochun said, scrolling the mouse a bit. There was silence from Yunho. “I swear. It’s right here.”  
  
“ _...Wow_.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“ _So basically,_ ” Yunho said slowly. “ _We’ve got a bunch of crazy, militaristic,_  stupid  _terrorists about to receive a huge shipment of weapons._ ”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“ _Faaantastic._ ”  
  
“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.” Yoochun said. “It’s my job to figure out what’s going on. Your job to stop it.”  
  
—  
  
“Right.” Yunho said, resigned. “Well, then, off we go.”  
  
He turned to grimace at the rest of his team. Blinked.  
  
“Jaejoong?” He asked, slowing his run. “Where are Sungmin and Shindong?”  
  
***  
  
Sungmin had been contentedly running along behind the rest of his team when, out of nowhere, he was flying tackled by a man lying in wait off to the side in one of the wings.   
  
The man shoved a hand over his mouth and radioed, “I’ve got one of them! We’re on the sixth floor at the back of the building! They’re—”  
  
This was all he managed to say before Sungmin kneed him swiftly in the crotch. The man yelped in pain and crumpled. Sungmin stepped over him and took two steps after his friends when there was a commotion behind him. He turned to see several men clearly bent on his destruction enter the hallway behind him.  
  
“How the hell do you all keep  _getting_  to places so fast?!” He yelled at them.   
  
“We have maps!” One of them yelled back, shrugging.  
  
_So do we,_  Sungmin thought, depressed. He couldn’t go after the rest of the team now—he would lead the men straight to them. Out loud, he said, “Well. I suppose you’ll want to kill me now, right?”  
  
“That’s the idea, yeah.” The same guy yelled back.   
  
“That’s unfortunate.” Sungmin sighed. Then he ran down the corridor  _toward_  the men.   
  
He was, of course, relying heavily on the element of surprise. They all had guns. He had nothing. However, once he was within striking distance, who had weapons and who didn’t ceased to matter.   
  
He reached them before they even knew what was happening, and the first man, the one he’d been talking to, received a foot to the face and went down without so much as a sound. Sungmin shifted his footing slightly and delivered a roundhouse kick to the man who’d been standing next to him, causing him to crash backwards into the men behind him, sending them all stumbling off balance.   
  
Sungmin just charged forward. He punched out the guy in front, then leaped into the air, kicking the man behind him in the chest and then,  _using the man as a springboard_ , twisted in midair to land a spinning kick to the head of the man attempting to shoot him from behind.   
  
Sungmin didn’t need a gun.   
  
He was the Martial Arts Expert.   
  
He kept them floundering for their guns right up until he finished off the very last guy. He watched him drop, then turned, relieved… and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He froze.   
  
One of the guys he knocked out earlier hadn’t stayed down.  
  
And as good as Sungmin was, he couldn’t do anything when faced with a gun point blank. It was over.  
  
He closed his eyes.   
  
There was a sudden blast of noise and Sungmin’s eyes flew open. The man staggered forward to steps—then fell forward onto his face, to reveal…  
  
“Shindong!”   
  
Shindong reloaded the shotgun aggressively, and Sungmin grinned. Shindong was their Firearms Specialist. If it shot projectiles, and he was holding it, whoever he was aiming for was screwed.   
  
“Hey. Noticed you weren’t behind me anymore.” He said. “Wonder if Yunho’s realized we’re—”  
  
Their earpieces crackled to life.  
  
_“Sungmin. Shindong. Where the hell are you.”_  
  
“Sorry Yunho,” Said Shindong as they began jogging down the corridor. “Got a little held up.”  
  
_“Hurry back. We need to move, fast.”_  
  
“Right away, boss.” Shindong said. They double-timed it back to Yunho. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** signifies a brief jump in time/action  
> — signifies concurrent actions/dialogue over radio; no time lapse has occured

Leeteuk burst through the door back outside into bright sunlight at last.   
  
It was four minutes to eleven.   
  
He and the others had four minutes to find where the shipment was going out. Four minutes to stop it from falling into the hands of an apparently crazy anti-militaristic terrorist group.   
  
And they had no idea where they were supposed to be.   
  
“This should not be this difficult.” Heechul growled from behind him. “It’s like, what, a  _ton_  of firearms they’re moving? How is that hard to track?”   
  
Leeteuk shook his head and keyed his mic. “Everyone? Positions?”  
  
“ _Almost on the outside. Give us three minutes_.” Yunho responded.  
  
“ _We’ll be out in a minute, on the south side_.” Eunhyuk told Leeteuk.  
  
“ _Me and Wook are trying to get out from the office floors_.” Junsu said, and Leeteuk thought he heard Ryeowook’s voice yelling, “EXCUSE US!” and an answering feminine scream in the background. And the sound of something shattering. “ _Kinda conspicuous, but at least they can’t shoot us in a crowd_...”  
  
“ _Leeteuk, are you outside?_ ” Siwon’s voice asked.   
  
“Yes, where are you?”  
  
“ _Look up._ ”  
  
Leeteuk looked up.   
  
A helicopter blasted into view over the side of the roof on his side of the building, and hovered in the air, hundreds of feet above him. Leeteuk grinned.  
  
“Nice.” Kyuhyun said, while Hankyung gave the helicopter a thumbs up from beside him. “I approve.”  
  
“ _I’m glad_.” Siwon said. “ _I figure I should be able to find them from this_.”  
  
“Great.” Leeteuk said, feeling, for the first time, that something was actually going their way.  
  
—  
  
“ _Get to it_.” Leeteuk told him and Siwon banked the helicopter around the side of the building. He began patrolling the perimeter.  
  
“ _Realistically,_ ” Kibum’s voice sounded off, “ _there’s really not that many places they could be shipping from…_ ”  
  
“ _There’s the harbor _…__ ” Yoochun mused.   
  
“ _We already checked the harbor._ ” Kibum said. “ _There were no preparations whatsoever for any kind of transfer. There weren’t even any ships there._ ”  
  
The Shi-copter rounded the last side of the building—the side facing the ocean. Siwon brought the copter up short.  
  
“Uh. Guys?” He said, hoping his next words wouldn’t cause any of his teammates to subsequently shoot themselves in the foot. “I think… they’re heading for the harbor.”  
  
Any and all talking across the lines stopped.  
  
“…Hello?”  
  
There was a sudden, explosive, spluttering sound, which Siwon understood a moment later to be Changmin bursting into uncontrollable laughter.   
  
“ _Well_.” Yunho’s voice said emotionlessly. “ _At least someone is amused by all of this_.”  
  
“ _I’m sorry. I just… come on, it’s a_  little  _hilarious_.”  
  
“ _No_.” Yunho said. “ _Wrong_.”  
  
“ _Siwon, are you sure?_ ” Yoochun cut in. “ _I’ve got an eye on the harbor, and… I don’t see any ships._ ”  
  
“Well, I see a bunch of furtive looking guys with a couple of huge crates, but I may be jumping to conclusions.” Siwon checked the time.   
  
“ _One minute until drop off_.” Leeteuk said tersely.   
  
“ _It must be the harbor then!_ ” Yoochun said frustratedly. “ _But how—_ ”  
  
“Hold that thought.” Siwon said. He stared hard at the harbor. Gripped the controls. He blinked rapidly, wondering if he was seeing things. He wasn’t.  
  
“Oh… my… God…”  
  
“ _Siwon, if you give me more bad news, I swear_ —” Yunho said.  
  
“You’re not gonna believe me. I know how they’re getting it out, but you’re not going to believe me.”  
  
“ _What is it?_ ” Yoochun asked.   
  
“Yoochun… they brought a submarine.”  
  
_—_  
  
“…Sorry, I must have misheard you.” Yoochun said blankly. “They brought a  _what_?”  
  
“ _You didn’t. A submarine._ ”  
  
Yoochun stared at his radio for a split second, before finally breaking.  
  
“A  _WHAT?!”_ He shrieked at it. “A FUCKING  _SUBMARINE_?! THEY  _HAVE_  A FUCKING  _SUBMARINE?!”_  
  
“ _We’re gonna need backup_.” Leeteuk said.   
  
“How did they even  _get_  a submarine?!” Yoochun was still ranting.  
  
Changmin shrugged. “They’re crazy.”  
  
“THAT DOESN’T—”  
  
“ _Everyone just get to the harbor._ ” Leeteuk ordered. “ _If they get it loaded, there won’t be much we can do._ ”  
  
“ _We need something to slow them down!_ ” Donghae said.  
  
“ _Donghae’s right_.” Yunho agreed. “ _We need a distraction. And a_  lot  _of firepower_.”   
  
_—_  
  
Leeteuk nodded. “Yoochun.” He said. “Call them.”  
  
Yoochun sighed. “ _This is going to end in fire and death_.”  
  
“Probably.” Leeteuk said resignedly. “But, it’s better than the Knights of the Apocalypse taking off with this load in their submarine.”  
  
“ _Dammit. Damn them and their submarine. Right, I’m calling_.”  
  
***  
  
“Change it.”  
  
“Wha—this is a good song!”  
  
“No, it’s fucking not. This is a song my  _grandma_  maybe would have listened to—”  
  
“It came out like, last year.”  
  
“Whatever, you just want to sing all agonizingly to it, it’s a shitty song—”  
  
“ _Why_  do I always have to wait with you, you’re the most obnoxious person—”  
  
“It’s because you’d just get everyone killed if they actually let you come.”  
  
“Okay, that is fucking  _it_ —”  
  
A scuffle ensued, but was cut short when the radio in the truck fizzed to life.  
  
“ _—sung? Kangin? Hello?_ ”  
  
Yesung and Kangin both froze in place, with Yesung’s right foot pinning Kangin’s left arm to the door, and the back of Kangin’s other hand shoved firmly in Yesung’s face.   
  
“ _Have you two killed each other yet?_ ” Yoochun asked. The two men in the pickup extracted themselves from their awkward positioning.  
  
“Almost.” Kangin said. “Would have, had you not interrupted.”   
  
“ _Well, that’s a relief, because we need you._ ”  
  
Kangin and Yesung went from disgruntled to dead serious in under a second. “What’s going on?” Kangin asked.  
  
“ _Before I tell you, you need to promise me that you’re not going to… to blow up a city block again, or anything, because last time was just ridiculous—_ ”  
  
“It wasn’t an entire block!” Kangin said indignantly.  
  
“ _It was close_.”  
  
“Okay, okay, we’ll rein it in this time!” Yesung said quickly. “Just tell us.”  
  
Yoochun gave them a summarized version of the situation. When he finished, Yesung and Kangin looked at the radio, then at each other, then back at the radio.   
  
“…Wait,  _what_?” Yesung spluttered.   
  
“Knights… of the… Apocalypse…?” Kangin repeated slowly. “That’s the stupidest…”  
  
“A submarine.” Yesung said. “A  _submarine_?”  
  
“ _Yes_.” Yoochun said hurriedly. “ _And the others have decided that we need a distraction and a lot of firepower_.”   
  
At that, identical smirks slid onto both Kangin and Yesung’s faces.  
  
“Well,” Kangin said. “Why didn’t you just say  _that_?”  
  
“ _That_  we can do.” Yesung said ominously.  
  
“ _Oh, God, what have I done?_ ” Yoochun lamented.  
  
***  
  
Leeteuk moved cautiously to peer around the corner of the building, then pulled back.   
  
“They’re getting ready to load it.” He told the other three. “We need to slow them down, something, until Kangin and Yesung get here…”  
  
“I have an idea.” Heechul said.  
  
“What?”  
  
Heechul pursed his lips together. “This.”   
  
Without any further warning, he dashed around the corner,  _into plain view_  of the men loading the dock.  
  
“Oh,  _you’vegottobekidding_.” Leeteuk gasped. “ _MOVE, MOVE, MOVE_!” He yelled, abandoning his planning stage. “Cover him!”  
  
The other three charged around the corner, in time to see Heechul open fire with a  _submachine gun_ , spraying bullets into the handlers.  
  
“Where the  _hell_  was he keeping that?!” Hankyung asked.   
  
“I don’t even  _care_  at this point, just don’t let him die!” Leeteuk said hopelessly, and raced forward to help Heechul.  
  
Heechul didn’t need assistance. Heechul had been designated The Trigger Happy Gunman a long time ago by the rest of the team. Who said subtlety was best? A hint: it wasn’t him.  
  
Hankyung tackled Heechul out of the way  _just_  as the handlers recovered their wits enough to shoot back. They crouched behind some heavy machinery.   
  
“What was that for?!” Heechul asked angrily. Hankyung rolled his eyes as bullets impacted very near to their position. He looked to his right. Leeteuk and Kyuhyun were hidden behind some huge and conveniently positioned crates, ducking out every now and then to fire off a round at the handlers. The problem was, they were vastly outnumbered, and it wasn’t long before most of the handlers resumed their loading of the submarine, while the others kept Leeteuk’s team at bay.   
  
“Dammit!” Heechul yelled, faint panic beginning to register on his face, no matter how hard he tried to suppress it. “They’re loading it too fast! Where  _is_ everyone?!”  
  
“Couldn’t be talking about us, could you?” A voice said, and Hankyung and Heechul turned to see Junsu and Ryeowook running towards them, guns drawn. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” Junsu continued. 

“Okay, but where’s everyone _else_ —”  
  
There was a commotion from the other side of the docks, and then Yunho and his team, accompanied by Donghae and Eunhyuk, charged out from _nowhere_ , guns blazing and generally wreaking  _havoc_.   
  
The handlers, completely unprepared for this assault, were thrown into a panic, attempting to both load the cargo and defend themselves at the same time.  
  
“YES!” Heechul shouted, and before anyone could stop him (not that anyone really tried), he’d darted out from safety, wielding his submachine gun and firing crazily into the other side. Hankyung followed, taking out anyone who set their sights on Heechul (unless Heechul got them first). Leeteuk and Kyuhyun ditched their hiding place soon after.  
  
It was complete pandemonium.   
  
Kyuhyun watched anxiously as Sungmin, still without a weapon of any sort, ran straight into the fray. He saw one of the handlers notice this and take aim. Without thinking, Kyuhyun swung his gun up and fired, once.  
  
Head shot.   
  
Sungmin jerked around and Kyuhyun raised a hand in acknowledgement, grinning. He could see Sungmin’s answering smile from where he stood.  
  
“Nice shot.” Junsu said, whacking him on the back once as he raced by. Kyuhyun smirked. He was the Gifted Rookie. Just because he was new didn’t mean he couldn’t kill someone in one shot.  
  
“Kangin!” Leeteuk shouted into his mic in the middle of the action. “Where are you!”  
  
“ _Almost there_.”  
  
_—_  
  
“ _They’ve almost got it all loaded!_ ” Leeteuk said urgently.  
  
Kangin adjusted his mic to hear the leader’s voice over the wind rushing around him. “…Well. We’ll just have to revise our strategy, then.” He reached over and pushed open the window in the back of the pickup truck. “Yesung!”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Floor it.” Kangin went back to whatever it was he was doing in the pickup bed as the truck rapidly gained speed. “When we get there, just do what we planned. I’ve got an idea.”  
  
***  
  
Siwon was surveying the scene from his helicopter when he saw the pickup barreling headlong in the direction of the harbor. It careened around a corner, and he realized that Kangin was huddled in the back of the truck.   
  
“Heads up, everyone.” He said, the best warning he could give.  
  
***  
  
“Get closer to the edge of the dock!” Kangin yelled to Yesung.   
  
“Trying…” Yesung called back, teeth gritted. The trucks wheels were bouncing on the uneven wood, steering wheel practically fighting to break out of his control. He inched as close to the edge of the dock as he could—the wheels were nearly off the side; if he looked out his window, all he saw was water. “Close enough for you?!”  
  
“Yesung! After you jump, you need to move  _fast_! Otherwise—”  
  
“I know!”  
  
“Okay… get ready…  _GO_!”   
  
Yesung suddenly  _put the truck in park_. The abrupt transition made the whole vehicle shudder, its back tires coming straight off the ground as it skid across the dock  _straight towards the handlers._ The tires made a horrible ripping sound as they traveled across the wood.   
  
Kangin and Yesung bailed, but in different directions—Yesung out the passenger side door and into a roll once he hit the dock, and Kangin out of the truck bed and  _into the ocean_.   
  
Yesung got to his feet just as the truck shuddered to a halt right in the vicinity of the handlers. Still relatively close to where he was now standing.  
  
He booked it.   
  
There was a short moment of confusion among all parties as Yesung sprinted frantically, as fast as he could, _away_ from the truck—  
  
—at which point the truck exploded into a  _huge ball of fire_.   
  
It absolutely decimated Yoshida's men, taking out about two thirds of the handlers in a second, incapacitating them _—_ or worse. Yesung came to a stop in front of his team members, hands on his knees, panting. Everyone just stared.   
  
“You,” Heechul said approvingly, “are one  _crazy_  bitch.”  
  
Yesung shrugged, gave him a thumbs up, still too winded to speak. He was, quite simply, The Diversion. He liked being in the spotlight.  
  
“Wait.” Leeteuk said. “Where’s Kangin?”  
  
“He… jumped out…” Yesung said. “But I don’t see where—”  
  
“Uhh…” Eunhyuk said, and pointed.  
  
Everyone looked.   
  
At the edge of the dock,  _dangerously close to the remaining handlers_ , someone swung an arm over the edge, then a leg.   
  
Kangin hauled himself out of the water. He was soaking wet, white t-shirt pretty much transparent, the thin material clinging to his wide, muscular frame.   
  
“What the hell?” Shindong said.   
  
“What is he doing?” Jaejoong wondered.  
  
Bewilderment turned to something like panic when Kangin glanced over his shoulder at the submarine, and then pulled a Yesung, running flat out, away from the edge of the docks, waving his arms and screaming, “ _RUN!”_  
  
Yesung got it first.  
  
“Oh,  _SHI_ —”   
  
The  _submarine_  blew up.   
  
If the pickup truck had exploded big,  _this_  explosion was  _massive_. It looked like a geyser of flames, water, and chunks of metal, and was so violent that it not only blew up the submarine, but a large portion of the dock as well. The shockwaves sent anyone in the vicinity flying, Kangin included.   
  
“Shit!” Leeteuk yelled. “Get him!”  
  
He, Heechul, and Yunho tore forward, already firing at any handlers that had managed to recover. They reached Kangin, and Leeteuk and Heechul dragged him to his feet.   
  
“Kangin, they’re not all down yet!” Leeteuk said hurriedly. “Gotta move!”  
  
“I know they’re not all down yet.” Kangin said, struggling to stand. “That wasn’t supposed to kill  _them_. I was trying to sink the sub.” He paused for emphasis. “And the  _weapons_.”  
  
“Yeah.” Yunho said dryly. “I think it worked.”  
  
“What can I say?” Kangin grinned, flashing white teeth. “I’m the Demolitions Expert. I blow shit the hell up. ‘Nuff said.”  
  
“Okay, whatever,” Heechul said. “Let’s go—”  
  
He was cut off by the sound of a gunshot, and the sudden weight of Kangin on his shoulders as the bigger man crumpled.  
  
“KANGIN!”   
  
Kangin roared in pain. “Leg!” He ground out. “Who the  _fuck_ —”   
  
Yunho snapped his gun around, zeroed in on the guy, shot him square between the eyes. “We need to get out!” He radioed to everyone else.   
  
“ _Did Kangin just get_  shot _?!”_ Ryeowook shouted over the line.   
  
“In the leg. He sunk the weapons though, we can bail! Let’s get the hell out of here!”  
  
_—_  
  
“ _Yoochun. We need transportation and we need it now_.” Yunho said. The occupants of the Escalade were crowded around the radio, listening open-mouthed to everything that was happening, trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
“Kangin got  _shot?”_ Kibum asked.  
  
“ _Yes._ ”  
  
“Shit.” Changmin said. “Bad?”  
  
“ _NO_.” Kangin said defensively.   
  
“ _Sadly, not bad enough to shut him up._ ” Heechul said, but the three listening could hear the concern in his voice. “ _We’re heading your way. Come meet us._ ”  
  
“We’re on the way.” Changmin said.  
  
“— _hurts like a_  bitch—” They heard Kangin grate out in the background.   
  
“I’m gone.” Kibum said, taking off his headphones for the first time and grabbing a set of keys from the front of the van. “I’ll get Yunho’s team, Donghae, Eunhyuk and Yesung. You get the others.”  
  
He hopped out of the truck and out of view, as Yoochun climbed into the driver’s seat. Changmin stayed in back, but began rifling under the technological displays to pull out a medical kit that could rival that of the world’s best doctors. Changmin was the M.D. If they ever needed to bring someone back from the dead, he was the one they called. He could handle a gunshot wound like mothers handled a paper cut.  
  
He could also set up shop in a wildly swaying vehicle, and he proceeded to do so as Yoochun burned rubber out of the back alleyway.   
  
***  
  
The whole team covered Leeteuk and Heechul as they half dragged, half carried Kangin off the dock. The handlers were mostly down for the count, so for a few blissful moments, it was easy. Unfortunately, they were about to have new problems to deal with.   
  
The Knights of the Apocalypse, crazy as they were, were not about to just trust Yoshida and his men to happily load their precious weapons into their sub without supervision. No, they’d been there, observing, and as such, had seen Leeteuk’s team completely wipe out Yoshida’s men, blow up the submarine with the weapons inside, and attempt to make an escape.  
  
The Knights of the Apocalypse were pissed. And they weren’t about to let them go so easily.   
  
“ _Hey, everyone?”_ Siwon said suddenly. He was still hovering over the entire scene, scouting everything out. “ _Pick up the pace._ ”  
  
“Why?” Heechul wheezed. He was finding Kangin entirely too heavy for him. “They’re all dead.”  
  
“ _Yeah, Yoshida’s men are. But I think we may have new company. And they look… fast._ ”  
  
What Siwon was seeing that the other’s couldn’t was three expensive,  _blindingly_  fast cars zoom out of a parking structure and head straight for the team. Because if nothing else good could be said about them, at least the Knights were rich.  
  
A large van and an Escalade chose that moment to pull up alongside the team. Kibum stuck his head out of the van window.   
  
“You seven!” He motioned at his designated passengers. “Get in!”  
  
Changmin threw open the back of the Escalade. “Kangin first!” He said. “And I need some space, so Junsu and Ryeowook, get up front.”  
  
“ _Guys, get out of there now!_ ” Siwon yelled suddenly.  
  
Three cars rounded the corner, heading straight for the team.   
  
“Who is  _that_?” Jaejoong asked.   
  
“ _I’m going to hazard a guess here… and say those are the Knights of the Apocalypse. And I don’t think they’re very happy with you._ ”  
  
“Oh, fuck no, I do  _not_  want to deal with those crazies right now.” Heechul said vehemently. He and Leeteuk helped Kangin into the back of the Escalade, then climbed in themselves. Kyuhyun and Hankyung followed, slamming the door behind them. The two cars peeled down the road.   
  
Their cars weren’t exactly lacking in speed, but the Knights’ cars were unimaginably fast—they caught up in seconds.   
  
Junsu looked to his right and blanched. One of the Knights’ cars, a Lamborghini, was  _right up against his side of the Escalade_. The driver grinned crazily at him, leaned his upper body out of the window, and aimed a pistol at him… then past him…  _at Yoochun_.   
  
Fastest way to take out a car was to take out the driver.  
  
“Yoochun, BRAKES!”   
  
Junsu unlocked the passenger side door, yanked on the door handle, and, right as Yoochun slammed on the breaks, kicked the door as hard as he could.  
  
The door swung open and  _slammed_  into the head of the Lamborghini driver, putting him out of commission. The car, now, in effect, driverless, swerved off the road.   
  
“There better have been a good reason for that.” Changmin grumbled in the back. Kangin was yelling obscenities left and right and had just very nearly punched Changmin in the eye. “Hold him down, would you?” He requested of Heechul and Leeteuk, while he tied Kangin’s leg off to stop the bleeding. He grabbed a pair of surgical tweezers from the kit. He was going to have to get the shrapnel out of the wound. “And shut him up.”  
  
“With pleasure.” Heechul responded.  
  
***  
  
Kibum’s car was having an equally rough time. Kibum was driving one handed, firing a pistol with the other out of his window, at the driver of the car attempting to run him off the road. It was a fairly big truck, and he was having difficulties.  
  
“Can someone do something about the asshole on my left, please?!” He shouted to no one in particular.   
  
“Working on it!” Donghae said. To Eunhyuk, he said, “Ideas?”  
  
Eunhyuk considered. “…Tires?”  
  
Donghae raised both eyebrows, and nodded. “Tires.”  
  
The vans back doors locked independently of each other. Eunhyuk braced his whole body against the door on the  _right_  hand side—the door on the  _same_ side as the car antagonizing them. He grabbed Donghae’s right arm right above the elbow with his left hand. Donghae reversed the gesture—grabbing Eunhyuks left arm with his right. It was a hold that wouldn’t be broken easily.   
  
Bullets pinged off the side of the van and Kibum swerved, calling back, “ _Now_  would be a great time!”  
  
Donghae took a breath, gripped his gun tightly in his left hand, and then opened the door on the  _left_ ,  _swung_  out of it, feet teetering on the van’s back bumper, kept from falling to his death  _only by Eunhyuk’s grip on his elbow_.   
  
He swung farther to the left until he could look around the side of the van and see the Knights’ truck. He narrowed his eyes, took careful aim (because his left hand was  _not_  his gun hand), and fired two shots.   
  
The truck’s back tires burst. The truck spun out of control, veering off the road and slamming into a lamppost.   
  
Eunhyuk pulled Donghae back inside the van and yanked the door shut.   
  
“Thanks.” Kibum said.  
  
“Anytime.” Donghae told him, flashing the “OK!” sign.  
  
“That was  _sweet_.” Jaejoong observed.   
  
***  
  
Two down, one to go, observed Siwon. He was still in the air, following the chase. The third car was lagging behind the others, behind the team.  
  
“Kicking some  _major_  ass down there, guys.” He said encouragingly. “Just this last one and then we can all go home.”   
  
No sooner had he said the words, than the third car pulled something none of them had expected.   
  
“Oh  _no_.” Siwon said. “Problem.  _Problem_. They have a rocket launcher.”  
  
“ _WHAT_.” Came the response—too many people said it at one time for him to make out from whom.   
  
“He’s loading a rocket launcher. The last guy. Yoochun’s car, you got anything?”  
  
“ _Not a fucking_  rocket launcher!  _This is ridiculous, where are they_ getting _this shit?!_ ” Yoochun yelled.   
  
_—_  
  
“ _Someone take him out!_ ” Leeteuk yelled. Yunho leaned out the passenger window of the van, gun trained on the last car. He wrenched himself back in, stomach churning with nerves.  
  
“They’re too far!” He told Leeteuk. “Can’t make the shot at this range!”   
  
“ _We can’t do anything, we’re too vulnerable with Kangin—_ ”  
  
“Trying to get closer—”  
  
—  
  
Yoochun watched fearfully as the guy mounted the launcher on his shoulder.  
  
“Junsu?!” He called.   
  
Junsu pointed his gun out the window and back, at the car.  
  
_Click.  
  
Out of ammo._  
  
“Fuck me…” Yoochun breathed.   
  
—  
  
Siwon gripped the controls so hard, his knuckles were white.   
  
Something… anything…  
  
The man took aim.   
  
Siwon looked down at the control panel, thinking he could maybe somehow  _land_  the helicopter on top of the car before—  
  
And that was when he discovered the helicopter had gun turrets.   
  
—  
  
“HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!” Leeteuk screamed at the men in the car with him. They grabbed onto anything that was nailed down, the people in back supporting Kangin as best they could. Leeteuk gritted his teeth.  
  
There was an abrupt cacophony—metal striking metal, rapidly, repeatedly; but it definitely didn’t sound like an RPG. It sounded more like—  
  
—  
  
“SIWON!” Yunho shouted, and leaned out of the window so he could fully see what was going on.  
  
Siwon had swooped down from the sky like an angel of fucking vengeance, and he was raining  _hell_  on the last car.   
  
The super-powerful bullets from the gun turrets in the helicopter made mincemeat of the car, turning it into Swiss cheese. It veered off to the side, allowing the van and the Escalade to clear a substantial amount of distance between it, before a bullet hit the gas tank and it went up in flames.   
  
—  
  
“ _Fucking YES!_ ” Heechul’s voice screamed into Siwon’s ear. Siwon laughed, feeling completely exhilarated.   
  
“ _Siwon, I love you._ ” Yoochun said. “ _Have I told you that lately? Because I do._ ”  
  
“ _THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING. I HAVE EVER SEEN._ ” Donghae ranted.   
  
“ _Siwon._ ” Hankyung said seriously. “ _You just saved our asses._ ”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“ _Thank you._ ”  
  
Siwon just grinned. “You’re welcome.”  
  
—  
  
“Alright.” Leeteuk said. “That’s it.  _Now_  it’s done.”  
  
He looked over at Kangin and Heechul, who were back to bickering, now that Kangin’s leg was mostly taken care of. Changmin wrapped it in one more layer, murmered, “That should be fine until we get back,” and asked Kangin how he was feeling.   
  
“Perfect. When’s the next mission?”  
  
Changmin rolled his eyes.   
  
“You know what?” Junsu said from the front seat. “I think we may make it back in time for the soccer match.”  
  
“Oh,  _wonderful_. What a relief.” Yoochun said sarcastically. “I mean, that’s what’s been on my mind this  _entire time._ ”  
  
“I’m  _just saying._ ”  
  
“Hey, Kyuhyun.” Ryeowook said playfully. “Still want to be a part of the team?”  
  
“Uh… hm. Let me get back to you.”  
  
Hankyung laughed. “It’s usually not this bad.” He paused. “…Usually.”  
  
“How’s everyone doing on your end, Yunho?” Leeteuk asked.  
  
***  
  
“Alive.” Yunho said. “Barely.” He groaned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. “Leeteuk, can we just  _never_  do this again? Ever?”  
  
“Agreed.” Jaejoong said. “I think that was… the worst mission I’ve  _ever_  been on.”  
  
“Seriously.” Donghae added.  
  
“It’s like  _nothing_  went  _right_.” Said Eunhyuk.   
  
Kibum chuckled. “It happens.”  
  
_“Never_  this bad.” Yesung said, from his sprawled, face down position in the back of the van.   
  
“Eh.” Sungmin said, shrugging. “Wasn’t that bad.”  
  
There was a beat of silence.   
  
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.” Shindong told him.  
  
—  
  
“Hey, anywhere I can meet up with you guys? I’d like to get rid of the helicopter—it’s a little conspicuous.” Siwon said.  
  
“ _There’s a park a little ways away from here._ ” Yoochun said. “ _You good with that?_ ”  
  
“Works for me. Kibum, got room for another person?”  
  
“ _Why not? We’ll meet you._ ”  
  
“ _Great._ ” Leeteuk said, voice weary, but undoubtedly proud.   
  
“ _Let’s go home._ ”  
  
***  
  
(When the few men Yoshida had remaining found the helicopter, it was clear right away that it probably wouldn’t ever fly again—Siwon, adept as he was at the actual flying part, was not so good at the landing part—and the team was long gone.   
  
Several days later, the police conducted an investigation into Yoshida Enterprises. Yoshida was found guilty of more than just a few petty crimes, and his business was shut down.  
  
Yoshida himself was shut  _away_ —for a good, long time.  
  
He’d definitely been beaten. And he wouldn’t forget it. Because you know what they say.  
  
You always remember your first time.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for coming along on this wild ride <3


End file.
